Etymograph

English

stratus

Stratus comes from Latin stratus ‘spread or stretched out’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sterh₃-1‘to spread, extend, stretch out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*str̥h₃tós1‘stretched, spread’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*strātos1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstratus1‘spread or stretched out’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1803stratus1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English stratus
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1803, Luke Howard, Suspension: “[page 99] Stratus. […] A widely extended, continuous, horizontal…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sterh₃-Wiktionary, English stratus‘to spread, extend, stretch out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*str̥h₃tósWiktionary, English stratus‘stretched, spread’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*strātosWiktionary, English stratusreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEstratusWiktionary, English stratus‘spread or stretched out’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1803stratusWiktionary, English stratus. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1803, Luke Howard, Suspension: “[page 99] Stratus. […] A widely extended, continuous, horizontal…”

The story

Coined by the British chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772–1864): see the 1803 quotation.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- ‘to spread, extend, stretch out’

straw, strand, sternum, prostrate, stroma, substratum, 10 more

through Latin stratus ‘spread or stretched out’

street, 2 more

Today it means

noun A principal, low-level cloud type in the form of a gray layer with a rather uniform base, usually not associated with precipitation, and capable of producing corona phenomena and a weak, uniform luminance.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “stratus”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- / stratus

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